Aradesh (city)
The city of Aradesh, formerly known as Shady Sands and New California City, is the largest city in the New California Republic (pre-war cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco are considered divided into separate settlements, as much of the them are still abandoned), and possibly the largest city founded after the end of the Great War in the former US. The city, located to the southeast of the White Mountains, near the former California-Nevada border, was founded in 2142 by former residents of Vault 15. History Early Years (2142-2189) Founding of the NCR (2189-2241) Expansion (2241 onwards) Neighborhoods as of 2300 Federal District The Federal District, located south of Downtown Aradesh is the location of the NCR Capital Building, as well as the Presidential Mansion, the offices of various government buildings, and a small compliment of NCR Army troops tasked with guarding the federal buildings. At the center of the district is a park centered around a statue of the mysterious figure known as "The Vault Dweller", who aided the NCR in its early days in 2189. The park is one of the few parts of the district open to the public, along with the NCR Museum and Archives, and the lobby of the office building containing the Office of Public Relations and Office of Foreign Affairs, with other areas being restricted. The largest structure is the NCR Capitol, which houses both the Congress and Supreme Court. The Capitol Building was completed in 2254, using parts shipped in using the recently completed NCR rail line, as a larger replacement for the older Capitol building. The present capital is a two-story structure with a marble facade, resembling a smaller version of the pre-war US Capitol Building. In 2257, an improved presidential Mansion in the same style was completed. In the late 2240s and early 2250s, the district was expanded south of its 2241 limits to accommodate office buildings for the various government offices. Among the more famous of these are the Office of Foreign Affairs Building, home to the embassies of various other states that have relations with the NCR, as well as the New California Republic Archives and Museum, which contains an archive of government documents, as well as various public museum displays of various artifacts, including the first copy of the NCR Constitution and Declaration of Founding, various items belonging to NCR presidents Aradesh and Tandi, as well as the figures known as the "Vault Dweller" and "Chosen One", assorted pre-war items, including the casing of a disarmed nuclear bomb, and objects captured by the NCR military on campaigns against the Enclave and Caesar's Legion. The Federal District is also home to what is perhaps the ambitious construction project in the post-war period, the New World Tower, a twelve-story steel-frame structure twice the height of any previous building in Aradesh, hailed as the "first post-war skyscraper". The New World Tower was over 15 years in the planning and construction, being commissioned in 2298 at the centennial of the founding of the NCR, and after years of planning and study of pre-war blueprints and surviving skyscrapers in Los Angeles and San Fransisco, followed by almost a decade of construction. Downtown The downtown area of Aradesh is located on the site of the original townsite, though none of the original townsite remains as of 2260. The downtown area is home to multiple shops, restaurants, and bars, the most well known being Dusty's Cantina, as well as the city police station, municipal hall and courthouse, the hospital, and the first power plant (a second power plant was later constructed in industrial district to keep up with increased demands). Prior to the NCR-Brotherhood War, there was a Brotherhood of Steel Outpost, though that was taken over by the NCR after the start of the conflict, and after the Treaty of Lost Hills, the new Brotherhood embassy was located in the Office of Foreign Affairs building in the Federal District with the other embassies. Downtown area is also home to the offices of those corporations whose offices are not directly attached to their facilities in the Industrial District, including the Stockmen's Association, an organization of brahmin ranchers. Other organizations that own or rent office buildings in the Downtown area include the charity the Followers of the Apocalypse, as well as a number of religions, including various post-war "Neo-Christian" sects, as well as the Church of Hubology among others. The Downtown area is also home to a few high-end apartment buildings, some of the most expensive rental properties in the city. North Marketplace and Industrial District A marketplace outside the actual city walls to the north had existed since about 2220, but was not incorporated into the city proper until 2243. This incorporation was accompanied by the increased exercising of NCR sovereignty outside of the walls of its constituent settlements, becoming more of a true nation state rather than an alliance of settlements. One of the first acts was incorporation of the marketplace was the elimination of the slaver Vortis, rumored to have been carried out by the figure known as "The Chosen One" and the subsequent demolition of his slave holding facility- which had been previously been considered technically outside NCR authority as it was outside the walls. The marketplace further expanded in 2249, with the completion of the Junktown and Shady Sands Line, the second line of the NCR Rail Service. This allowed for the transport refurbished pre-war industrial equipment, resulting in the industrial revival that had begun in Los Angeles and Dayglow coming to Aradesh. Between 2249 and 2265, multiple factories were opened in near the terminus of the rail line, including New California Armory, a branch of the metal reclaiming companies Republic Steel and United Reclamation, as well as a cement plant, a brick factory, and chemical plant producing copies of pre-war medicines such as stimpacks as "Rad-Away". University of New California, Capital Campus The Capital campus was founded in 2254, in a joint venture with the Followers of the Apocalypse to create a university similar to the ones already created in the ruins of UCLA and UC Berkeley. The university was originally built as a structure containing four classrooms, a scientific and medical lab, and a second structure acting as a dormitory. Much of the lab equipment was taken from the Vault 13. While the university has expanded to a second classroom and residence provide medical training, as well as agriculture courses, as well shorter "trade course" in subjects such mechanical repair, it still is far smaller and offers fewer courses than those founded in the remains of the pre-war UCLA and UC Berkeley. West Side The West Side of Aradesh, also known as "Million Cap Row" is the more affluent residential area, with larger houses and higher-end apartment buildings with access to pre-war amenities such as electricity, indoor plumbing, and sewer systems. The west side includes the Westin Estate, formerly a ranch until 2251, when the brahmin were moved to a larger property to the north of the city. The Westin family, however, retained the property and their house was expanded into one of the largest single-family homes in Aradesh, reflecting their status as major Brahmin barons. The West Side grew up around the Westin Estate in the 2250s and 2260s and other Brahmin barons, factory owners, and other affluent individuals built their homes in the area. South Side The South Side of Aradesh began at about the same time as the Industrial District, with the 2249 opening of the Junktown and Shady Sands line of the NCR Rail Service, which terminated at Aradesh. Much as has happened in the Industrial Revolution before it, the revival of industry in the NCR had attracted former farmers, particularly those in more marginal areas to move to cities in search of more steady employment in a safer area. When they arrived in Aradesh (then still called NCR City), the population exploded beyond what the existing city could support, leading to squatter settlements outside the walls being constructed out of various materials including adobe, cinder blocks, and scrap wood and metal. In order to avoid the intense heat of the desert- as working air conditioning was a luxury only found in the Executive Mansion and the homes of a few of the ultra-rich, the many of the structures were built partially underground, in brick or cement-lined pits between three and six feet deep. As the squatter settlement grew, increasing controversy grew over whether to allow them to stay- some in the city viewed the settlement as an eyesore, and the outhouses used by the squatters potentially leading to water contamination, as well as the fact that the squatters running an electrical line from the main line to the settlement was effectively stealing power (though it had a negligible impact on the city) while many factory owners realized that the labor provided by the new arrivals was necessary for continued industrialization. In the end, the factory owners won out, and the squatters were at least tolerated, though they were generally more likely to be harassed and barred entry to the downtown by the city police, and generally looked down on by the inhabitants of the wealthier areas of the city. In order to deal with the problem of human waste as the settlement grew, in 2256, the NCR and Followers of the Apocalypse jointly funded the construction the first of what would be several public restroom and shower houses, brick and concrete buildings equipped with the indoor plumbing and sewer connections that almost all of the homes in the South Side lacked. In the later years, six more such structures would be constructed. As more factories moved into NCR city and the worker population increased, they began to demand higher wages and better working conditions. In a clash between labor agitators and workers that lasted several decades, much like the previous industrial revolution, wages gradually improved, in part due to worker pressure, and in part due to factory owners following the "Henry Ford business model" of paying their workers enough to buy their products, creating more customers. In 2268, the NCR officially incorporated the South Side into the city, and placed them on the power grid on an official capacity, and worked towards paving some of the streets- which were haphazardly placed wherever spaces between the buildings was available. By 2280, some structures of the South Side, particularly the northern parts began to take on a more "middle class" appearance, with some homes getting water and sewer connections, though the public restrooms and showers still saw significant use. Bristlecone Bristlecone is a small town located in the White Mountains to the northwest of Shady Sands proper. The town, named for the high-altitude bristlecone pines in the range, which survived the Great War thanks to their distance from the nuclear detonations, was centered around the Cottonwood Valley Reservior, an artificial lake created by an earth and rock dam constructed in 2269 to provide additional water to Aradesh, connected to the town by the Tandi Aqueduct. Since its construction, the lake became a popular destination for locals seeking to escape the summer heat at the higher elevations of the mountains. This led to the opening of the Bristlecone Lodge, as well as a number of other hotels, rental cabins, bars, and restaurants catering to tourists who came to fish in the lake and hike and hunt in the mountains. By 2280, some wealthy residents of Shady Sands had also built summer homes there. Aradesh Joint Army-Air Force Base Originally, the NCR military presence in NCR City was housed in a barracks in the federal district, and had a small motor pool of vehicles outside of the town. In 2242, when the NCR captured several Vertibirds in the Navarro Offensive, a small airbase was built north of Aradesh, initially a rough field built in on the flat desert floor used as landing pad for Vertibirds and light planes. The NCR Army forces in the city were also relocated to barracks constructed at the airbase. In 2253, the NCR, having by this point recovered a number of pre-war fighter aircraft from old military bases, ordered the construction of a concrete airfield capable of landing Lockreed P-80s and other jet fighter aircraft. The runway completed in 2258, and a second longer runway was completed in 2262. By that point, the base was stationed with thousands of NCR troops and had facilities including barracks, airfields, helicopter pads, a motor pool, training facilities, a command and communications center, and an airfield control tower, all protected by concrete walls and connected to Aradesh by a road and an extension of the railway line that runs into Shady Sands. In addition to the main base, the military camp also owns the High Altitude Training Center, located in a former meteorological station in Mount Barcroft in the White Mountains. The training center is used in the training of mountain infantry and special forces units, to allow them acclimate to the thinner air and cold temperatures found at high elevations. One of the most grueling tests for prospective NCR Rangers, the trek from Aradesh on the valley floor (at an elevation of about 5100 feet above sea level) to the summit of White Mountain Peak (14,252 feet), passes by the Barcroft facility in the final stretch. The trek, which covers a ground distance of almost 30 miles and a climb of roughly 9000 feet, and subjects the Ranger candidates to both the heat of the desert floor, and the cold temperatures and thin air of the peaks, must be completed within 12 hours, while carrying a full field kit in order to pass. Category:Locations Category:New California Republic Category:Post-War Settlements